Late Wednesday, Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld responded to the controversy with testimony in front of the city council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.

“The Mayor and CDOT take very seriously the validity of and public confidence in all of our safety programs, including the red light camera program,” Scheinfeld said to begin her explanatory testimony. “Red light camera enforcement is designed to increase safety on Chicago’s streets. Cities across the country, and throughout the world, have been using such technology for many years.”

Here’s a short roundup of automated camera enforcement tidbits, including red light camera and speed camera enforcement from around the Chicagoland area.

Highland Park Puts Redflex On Month To Month Contract

Redflex is still facing fallout from their recent controversy with the City of Chicago. The company lost it’s largest contract when revelations of an alleged bribery scandal were revealed by the Chicago Tribune several months ago.

But other cities are now taking a careful look at Redflex and its practices.

North suburban Highland Park had a contract with Redflex which expired. Now Redflex is on a month to month extension of the contract while the town weighs all it’s options according to Pioneer Press.

UPDATE Tuesday night: The Village of Justice’s village board has voted to put Chief of Police Gedville on administrative leave while the town attorney can conduct an investigation according to the Tribune.

As of January 3, there will be one town less using cameras to enforce red light violations–west suburban Naperville.

According to the Daily Herald, in “a surprise move” , the Naperville city council voted to not renew their optional fourth year of their contract with their RLC vendor.

Part of the decision was made for the city council as two of the RLC locations (Rt. 59 & North Aurora Road and Route 59 & Diehl Road) were going to be yanked due to construction slated to begin near the end of 2012.

Just as it looks like the Illinois General Assembly is poised to pass a law to enable Chicago to become the automatic speed camera enforcement capital of the U.S., Illinois PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) has just released a report detailing the pitfalls of such systems.

“Our report found that too many cities wrongly sign away power to ensure the safety of citizens on the roads when they privatize traffic law enforcement, said said Celeste Meiffren, Field Director of Illinois PIRG. “Nationally, automated traffic ticketing tends to be governed by contracts that focus more on profits than safety. That shouldn’t happen.”

Meiffrin is quick to point out that Illinois PIRG does not take a stance on whether or not traffic camera enforcement promotes safety.

“We really don’t take a stance on whether camera enforcement is a good or bad thing,” Meiffrin contends. “But in most cases it is not about public safety but about revenue. There are questions about the effectiveness of red light cameras but our report doesn’t address these issues.”

The City of Chicago has the largest automated traffic enforcement program in the nation with 191 red light camera equipped intersections and over 382 cameras issuing $100 tickets.

According to a report generated by the west suburban town, RLC violations have fallen significantly at three intersections.

At one intersection, Route 59 and North Aurora Road, red light tickets reportedly have dropped 65%. While Route 59 and Diehl Road has fallen by 42%, and the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Aurora Avenue are down 58%.

Interesting enough, Naperville claims crashes are down at some RLC intersections as well.

While Naperville seems to be proud of the reduction in red light camera violations, part of the decrease in violations could be linked to the city eliminating enforcement of all right turn on red violations at RLC intersections but one back in July 2010.